One King to Rule Them All
by Gojirahkiin
Summary: Eight Godzillas have fought other kaiju on the big screen and staked their claim to the title "King of the Monsters," but which of them truly deserves that title? Find out in a battle to the death between Godzilla (Showa), Godzilla (Heisei), Godzilla 2000, Godzilla (GxM), Godzilla (GxMG), Godzilla (GMK), Godzilla (Final Wars), and Godzilla (Legendary)! Complete! Also on Deviantart.
1. Chapter 1

It was the end of the world. That was the only explanation that the people of Japan – indeed, the people of the world – could come to as the morning light illuminated a vision unrivaled by even their darkest dreams. Tokyo and even the surrounding cities had already evacuated in the face of this nightmare and all eyes were glued to the videos provided by the few reporters brave enough to stay.

Not one, nor even two, but eight Godzillas stood in a wide semicircle, snarling and glaring not at the city, but each other, sizing each other up.

The demon, a malevolent figure that glowered with pupil-less eyes, the rage of those fallen and forgotten burning in its dark heart. It waited for its rivals to make the first move, and swore it would be their last. Its lip curled in a snarl. It had slain gods; mere animals, even those in his own image, would be no match.

The next, a hero that had vanquished the likes of Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, and the even the dreaded King Ghidorah. Today would be his greatest challenge, but he was unafraid of even the largest of his doppelgängers. He sensed malevolence in the eyeless gaze of the other and challenged him.

Nearby two identical Gojirans circled one another. Mountains of emerald scales and amethyst spines they viewed each other as rivals. One had vanquished Orga, and the other Megaguirus, but now they focused on one another. Both knew that whatever else transpired, only one would survive their duel.

A third stood apart, growling at his similarly sized rivals. Gray hide, jagged silver spikes, and a large scar on his chest, he sensed the two jade titans as instinctive rivals, but was more concerned by the white-eyed demon. It smelled familiar, but his other senses declared it an abomination, more akin to the mechanical mockery that had attacked him before.

Apart from them stood three leviathans, each easily twice the height of their smaller kin. One, enormous and grey roared its challenge to the others, slamming its tail against the ground in a show of strength. It was perhaps the most well known of the three, having rampaged across Japan during the eighties and nineties.

The second was leaner and it was eager to accept. He had been sealed in the Antarctic, allowing his challenger free reign, but now he was free and would take back his kingdom. He and he alone had driven back the Xilien invasion; the entire world was his territory now.

The third stood only slightly higher than the other two, but was far more vast. It roared a challenge that drew the attention of its two similarly-sized rivals. The calls of his ancient foes the MUTOs had awoken him, but now that he had risen he had sensed these other, younger Godzillas. They had ruled as tyrants during his long absence, and had become a threat to the balance of nature. But now he had returned and such threats would not be tolerated.

Eight now stand but seven must fall, for there can be only one true King of the Monsters!

* * *

Author's Note: Happy 2016, Internet. I've had this on my hard drive long enough and figured that I'd post it for the new year. Now, why only eight versions of Godzilla? Well, numbers nine and ten would be the original Godzilla (who never fought anything other than the military) and the newly announced Shin Godzilla (who hasn't appeared on screen yet). The eight in this battle royale have all been in movies and fought other kaiju.

This means that as far as I know there are six Godzillas that I have excluded: the manga version of the Heisei Godzilla, who I only know of second-hand; the Hanna Barbera cartoon Godzilla; the Marvel Comics version of Godzilla; the Dark Horse Comics version of Godzilla; the Half-Century War version of Godzilla; and the Rulers of Earth version of Godzilla.

Also excluded are any other versions of Godzilla not currently listed, because if they aren't listed I've never heard of them.


	2. Chapter 2

Rapid, thunderous footsteps heralded the first signs of aggression, as the hero charged the demon. The possessed remnant of the original Godzilla held his ground, bracing himself for the inevitable collision.

But the champion of Japan did not tackle its destroyer – instead, he stopped just in front of him and threw his full momentum into a devastating punch. The impact was louder than a thunderclap, and served as the prelude to a sequence of rapid-fire punches to the demon's face and torso. The heroic Godzilla, though ten meters shorter and ten-thousand tons lighter than his villainous counterpart, clearly held the advantage in melee combat, driving his foe backwards with every blow.

For his own part, the demon was revising his opinion of the Godzilla that currently defied him. None of the three juvenile gods he had slain had been so tenacious or powerful. He narrowed his pure-white eyes.

That did not mean that he was strong enough.

He blocked one punch and then with his other hand he aimed a swing at his rival's head, only for the heroic Godzilla to do something completely unexpected.

Godzilla caught the claw in both hands, then pivoted his body, turning his back on his foe. He then leaned forward and pulled with all of his strength, throwing the possessed Godzilla over his shoulder and through a nearby parking structure, kicking up a large cloud of dust and debris.

Godzilla did not let up. He knew that if his foe was anywhere approaching his own strength that the fight was nowhere near over. He blasted the ground within the dust cloud with his atomic ray, the azure beam strafing the area he believed his doppelgänger lay several times.

But when he ceased fire, the light did not fade.

As the cloud lifted the demon was once again revealed to the light of day, his own spines glowing. He unleashed his own atomic breath, strong enough to bend nearby trees with the force of its passing, directly at his enemy's torso. The proud hero tried to hold his ground, but with a scream of pain he fell to the ground.

The demon advanced, almost seeming to grin evilly as it did so, and charged his ray yet again. But the old champion was only down, not out; just before the malevolent monster could fire, the heroic Godzilla beat him to the punch, blasting the side of his face. His atomic ray did not have the same power behind it, but it still struck with enough force to throw off his foe's aim, causing the far stronger beam to bifurcate a distant skyscraper.

The demon roared in rage, and the hero returned the challenge, punching his fists together and assuming a fighting stance. The two kaiju charged one another once more…

* * *

At the same time the two identical Godzilla's had begun fighting each other, but it was clear that one of them was a superior fighter. Godzilla 2000, so named because he had been the first of the Godzilla's that emerged in the new millennium, fought slowly and ponderously, as if he were either over or under thinking every move. His foe, though identical in appearance, fought in a far different manner. Reflexes honed in battle with Megaguirus, he found the Godzilla he fought to be slow and predictable. Every swipe of a claw he blocked and every attempted bite he punished. It did not matter to him that his rival could heal from these injuries – eventually his energy reserves would run low and he would finally fall.

Finally, seemingly more out of frustration than anything else, Godzilla 2000 charged his atomic ray, lavender spines crackling like the fire that they resembled as they shifted to an orange hew. Mere seconds later, he blasted his rival with the same beam that had disfigured Orga and crippled the Millennian spaceship. He focused on his enemy's torso, but once the explosions had hidden his foe from his gaze, he swept the beam from side to side, destroying nearby structures and setting the ruins ablaze.

With the fires illuminating everything, he did not notice the louder crackling sound until it was too late, and he found his own chest struck dead center by yet another orange atomic ray. He attempted to hold his ground but found himself sliding backwards until his spikes embedded themselves in a building behind him.

As the speedier Godzilla emerged from the fire and smoke, the two Godzilla's mused on the differences between them. Godzilla 2000's beam was more explosive and volatile, but the other millennial Godzilla's beam had greater force behind it.

As the slower Godzilla struggled to free himself, his faster rival approached, but suddenly he stopped and ducked.

From somewhere behind him came a bright blue atomic ray, striking Godzilla 2000 in the face with enough force to send him the rest of the way through the building he had been trapped in.

As Orga's killer groaned in the rubble, Megaguirus's killer stood up and turned around to face the one who dared try to strike him from behind.

A third Godzilla roared a challenge at him, this one visually distinct from the other two. Bumpy gray hide and irregular silver spikes adorned him, as did an unusual feature for any Godzilla: a large scar across his chest, where the absolute zero cannon had inflicted such a serious wound that not even a Godzilla's regeneration could fully restore the flesh.

He had watched the battles taking place amongst his similarly sized kin, exercising patience despite his urge to fight. The demon and the champion appeared evenly matched from his perspective, but between the other two, one held a clear advantage, making it the greater threat. He was not much faster than the Godzilla against whom this other challenger fought so well, meaning it was simply pragmatic to attack him while he was distracted.

But as the two of them glared and roared at each other, a third roar joined them. Godzilla 2000 had free himself from his prison of concrete and steel and was enraged at the both of them.

The battle had just become more interesting…

* * *

At the same time, the titans began to battle. The most famous of the Godzillas was perhaps the most predictable, immediately lashing out with his beam weapon to gauge his enemies' strength. The larger one – the one with spines like shards of glass – seemed surprised that he would use his strongest weapon so soon. The leaner one – the one that resembled him so closely – seemed more annoyed that he had struck first than anything else.

He had begun to charge his beam a second time, but the leaner one struck first, and took aim at his face. Screaming in pain, he had blindly swept his beam across the ground. When he had opened his eyes his near-identical foe had closed the distance between them and was slashing and punching him. Godzilla snarled. His foe was clearly more experienced in close quarters combat than he was. He would simply have to drive him back. He charged his atomic breath for a point blank blast. He knew that his style was somewhat predictable, but all of his foes had ultimately fallen to it.

The other Godzilla surprised him, pausing it its assault to bite his throat. Clearly it thought that the atomic ray was the full extent of his power.

How naive.

Unable to emerge from his jaws, the nuclear energy returned to his body and then surged outwards in a powerful nuclear pulse that shattered nearby buildings as if concrete and steel were mere glass. But his attacker, though blown backwards, did not appear harmed. Indeed, after a moment passed it seemed that he had absorbed the radiation.  
Godzilla was infuriated. How dare this doppelgänger absorb his power?! He charged forward intending to tear it apart with his claws and teeth and his foe obliged. Red blood was spilled by tooth and claw, but beneath their roars and snarls they heard a deep creaking and groaning. Pausing in their hostilities, both looked towards the source of the sound, to see the third Godzilla, the largest of them, pushing one of the human's skyscrapers down to crush them.

They both roared in rage and fired their atomic rays upwards in an attempt to destroy what fell towards them, but by then it was too late. The skyscraper had fully toppled and the bulk of it fell on top of both of them, silencing them.

Near the base of the fallen structure, the eldest of the Godzilla's, the relic of the Permian era, let out a roar, challenging both and either of them to get up and face him. He was a predator at heart and had used their focus on each other to his advantage, but he knew that he would have to fight in earnest before the day was done. Nevertheless, with any luck he had caused enough damage to tilt the odds in his favor. He walked slowly towards where his two foes were buried, feeling for any vibrations and listening for any muffled roars.

He needn't have bothered. Mere moments later both of his rivals emerged from the rubble looking no worse for wear and now both focused on him.

The Permian predator huffed. It was going to be a long day…

* * *

Author's Note: How was that? Were the fights good? Could you tell each Godzilla apart from the others? Please review and give feedback.


	3. Chapter 3

A large part of Tokyo now resembled a sea of smoke and fire. This was due in large part to three Godzillas firing their respective versions of the atomic ray at one another. Two orange and one blue, all three carved through buildings like scythes through wheat, and set fire to anything that did not outright collapse.

In the center of the inferno, the survivor of the Dimension Tide fought a war on two fronts – with Orga's bane behind him, and Kiryu's nemesis in front of him, he was forced to think quickly as they charged.

As soon as Godzilla 2000 stepped into range, a prehensile tail wrapped around his leg and pulled, toppling him and buying the tail's owner a moment to plan. However, the plan was simple: charge forward to fight the silver-spiked rival.

As they grappled, the differences between them became clear to the unlucky few still trapped in the city to watch such a spectacle. Though the same height and weight, the scarred one had a shorter tail and a bulkier body. However, that bulk did not seem to aid him, as he was slightly slower than his enemy, who scratched at the scar with his claws, instinctively recognizing it as a weak point.

But when discussing kaiju – especially Gojirans – "weak" is a relative term. As the jade-scaled monster went in for a bite, he turned his body to present his better armored shoulder. Though painful, the bite did no real damage there, and it bought him a moment to charge his primary weapon.

Seeing his strategy, his foe released him and started charging its own atomic ray, but the grey titan's weapon was faster to charge and he fired it point blank at his rival's neck, toppling him.

Glowing orange spines dug into the ground, impaling and melting it in equal measure as their owner released a strangled groan and tried to roll onto his belly so that he could rise. His opponent took a cautious step forward and began charging another blast.

For better or worse, Godzilla 2000 chose that moment to rise and fire his own atomic ray, hoping to catch the one that had shot him in the face off guard. It simply was not meant to be as a blue atomic ray immediately flew to intercept it.

Blue and orange beams met in the middle, directly over the third, still-dazed Godzilla, but as the beams contested, the ball of energy between them steadily grew, until it touched the still crackling spikes the rising Godzilla.

There was no other way it could end than in a tremendous explosion of nuclear energy. The radiation did not harm any of them in the least – indeed, it may well have given them all a small boost – but the sheer force released by the explosion did more than enough damage on its own. Such was the power of the shockwave that much of the smoke had been dispersed, most of the fires extinguished, and all of the surviving buildings for several kilometers completely leveled.

Two Godzillas rose and roared at each other.

There were no signs of the third, merely a crater where it had been, and disturbed earth where apparently even the pavement had been blasted away.

Godzilla 2000 charged his only standing rival, the scarred Godzilla, who rushed to meet him.

* * *

The Permian predator bit down on the back of his rival's head, making it yelp. The younger king had powers that nature had never intended – he had seen its scratch and bite marks sealing, and felt the power of its atomic ray – but if there was one thing that two-hundred-fifty million years of life had taught him, it was that brain injuries do not regenerate. He would crush this mutant's skull in his jaws and end it quickly.

A bite to the gills distracted him and he disengaged with a howl of pain. At least he _would_ crush the mutant's skull if the other one would give him a moment's respite. He had quickly discovered that as powerful as the bulkier of his foes was at a distance, he lacked experience in claw to claw combat, and had exploited it.

A pity that the same could not be said of the smaller mutant. It was the same height as the other one, but slimmer, and compensated for a lack of weight with sheer aggression and a bestial cunning. It had quickly determined that his gills were a weak point and begun targeting them. His only saving grace was that the third was equally aggressive to the both of them. It either did not know or care that the alpha predator had determined its weaknesses, and lashed out with a single-minded rage at whichever of them was closest to it.

But what the Godzilla of the Cold War era lacked in strategy it made up for in savagery and an apparently vast well of nuclear energy. He was not afraid in the least of firing his beam at point blank, even when the ensuing explosion could potentially hurt him just as much. He seemed fully aware that few things could harm him, and much of what did could regenerate.

True to form, the smaller mutant had tackled the other off its feet and was now rapidly punching the larger one, knocking out teeth with the sheer force of each punch, but after a few halfhearted attempts to bite the offending fists, the larger one settled for firing an atomic ray at its attacker and maintaining the blast until pain forced the attacker to back away long enough for him to return to his feet.

He did not stay on his feet long. Not one second had passed when the tail of the eldest Godzilla slammed into his its gut with all the force he could muster. Such was the power of the blow that even the predator felt a pair of the mutant's ribs break. That, he was sure, would tax the creature's unnatural healing factor. He waited just long enough to see it fall backwards and howl in agony before charging the smaller mutation.

He would give credit where it was due; the smaller creature showed no fear whatsoever, running towards him as fast as it could. It even leaped at him, perhaps thinking to take him by surprise.

With speed the mutant had not anticipated the eldest Godzilla caught him by the throat with one hand and began pushing him backwards. He resisted for a moment by bracing his tail against the ground, but the alpha predator began using a second claw and any hope of holding him back was lost.

The Permian Godzilla did not normally go out his way to destroy the human's nests. For all their faults they were part of the world as well, but today he could not afford such consideration. He slammed the mutant through building after building hoping to wear down its tough hide.

He would have kept going but an alien energy suddenly surged through his prey's body, burning him and forcing him to drop it. No matter. The prey was on the ground now and he could work with that.

* * *

The battle between hero and demon was quickly becoming a battle of speed against raw power. The heroic Godzilla would use the villain's every move against him, slamming his face and body through buildings. If not for his thick hide he would be covered in sharp debris and bruises.

But for all his skill, the champion was not perfect. One of his arms was covered in blood from a bite he'd been unable to avoid, but even in that he'd shown himself to be full of surprises, using his other hand to force open his foe's jaws and extricating himself.

Now as the fight raged on, the possessed Godzilla aimed a bite at his foe's neck, but his more agile rival deftly ducked and actually took the opportunity to headbutt his neck. As he staggered back the hero aimed another rapid set of punches at his sternum, causing the demon to growl in pain and anger. This creature did not know when to give up – though the blows hurt, his bones were in no danger of breaking.

The punches were followed up with another instantaneous blast of atomic breath, scalding the demon's hide, but doing nothing more than superficial damage. Nevertheless, the champion was unperturbed. He had once fought Rodan for twelve hours straight, and the far deadlier Hedorah for eight. If this undead abomination had anywhere close to his stamina, of course it wasn't near its limit yet. It was powerful, but that went without saying; it was a fellow Godzilla, even if bastardized and resurrected.

He could smell the stench of death on the creature, and had swum in Tokyo Bay enough times to know that it's scent was identical to the one that should have been dead at the bottom of the sea. It wasn't like him – a thinking, feeling creature – but a thing of mindless hatred and rage. It was no better than King Ghidorah, and so it would meet the three-headed monster's fate.

The reanimated Godzilla swung its tail at him. Perfect.

He caught it and began pivoting on the spot. It was nowhere near the largest or heaviest thing he had ever lifted, but that did not matter right now. He spun and spun and finally tossed his doppelgänger through one of the larger remaining skyscrapers, which then came crashing down on top of him. He'd likely get back up any second now, but Godzilla needed a moment to get ready for something.

The demon burst through the rubble and shook its head, looking for all the world like a dog trying to shake off water. It turned and snarled in the direction of its opponent–

–Only for the growl to die in its throat and its pupil-less eyes widen in shock as it saw the heroic Godzilla sliding on his tail towards him feet first.

Twenty-thousand tons of kaiju struck him at a ludicrous speed, knocking the wind out of him and sending him back into the rubble pile.

Bouncing off from the impact and landing on his feet, the champion allowed himself a small round of applause from himself before blasting the rubble with his atomic breath. He would kill this abomination if he had to chisel at it all day and night, and every little bit helped.

For a minute nothing stirred as Godzilla lit up the creature's rubble tomb, occasionally stopping to kick boulder-sized chunks onto the pile, when suddenly the demon burst from its makeshift grave in a cloud of ash and fire, looking like an angry god.

Godzilla kicked another chunk of rubble at him, unimpressed, and beckoned for him to come get some.

The demon roared and barreled forward at full speed, roaring loudly enough to shatter any remaining glass in the district.


	4. Chapter 4

Godzilla struggled beneath the leviathan's foot, each stomp making his very bones creak and groan. He had believed that his opponent's gills would make him an easy target – and to a certain extent that thought had been correct. Every bite and blow to the gills made the massive kaiju whimper, but in targeting them, he had himself become the target of the creature's rage.

Ever since being freed from his Antarctic prison, he had been the most powerful kaiju on the planet. Monster X had been his near equal, and Keizer Ghidorah only superior due to fancy tricks with the laws of physics, but this elder Godzilla was a true rival to him.

After the fourth stomp he caught the elder's foot and struggled to push him over. Though only slightly taller than him, the elder was far heavier, and though he was not as heavy as Keizer Ghidorah, Godzilla did not have the same leverage he'd had when he had thrown the alien hydra.

As Godzilla struggled to keep the elder from pressing his full weight onto his chest, he heard a loud whirring noise. For a moment he wondered what it could be, until he realized that he had not yet seen his foe use his atomic breath. He shut his eyes and braced himself for what he knew was coming.

True enough, moments later his face was engulfed in searing pain. Had his eyes been open, he would have seen the azure flames flowing around his head and neck, scalding them. He cried out in pain, momentarily losing his grip on the foot he'd been trying to stop from crushing him, and with a thunderous boom it slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

But Godzilla was merely down, not out. As the pain subsided, he opened his eyes and saw the elder leaning back to take in another breath and took the opportunity to push with all his strength using the old king's slight but still considerable backward momentum to throw him off balance. It only made him stagger a few steps, but it bought him enough time to get to his feet.

He went on the attack immediately, swinging his tail at the elder's head. Too slow to block it, the elder tried to snap at it as it passed, leaving one of his gills exposed to a blast of atomic breath. The alpha predator screamed in pain and clutched at the burning flesh. Godzilla took this opportunity to charge; the elder might have been stronger than him, but he was also slower.

The young Godzilla crashing into the elder was less comparable to a football tackle than it was to a tsunami. The tremendous force of the impact sent the elder flying back through several buildings before he came to a stop, and immediately the young king was upon him, scratching, punching, and biting at every part of the elder, trying to find a chink in his armor. The gills were clearly sensitive, yes, but given that they had yet to bleed they were not truly a weak spot either.

The alpha predator roared and groaned, but every time he tried to get up the young mutation slammed him back to the ground. He lashed out with his tail, but the youngster avoided it, having seen what it could do at full force, but he took a step too close to the old Godzilla's jaws. The elder bit down on Godzilla's hand, and used the younger one's instinctive reaction to pull away to help himself back to his feet.

The mutant snarled, realizing what the elder had done and fired another atomic ray at his face. This time though, the elder was ready and in a seamless motion ducked and turned, swinging his tail a full hundred-eighty degrees to smash full force into the younger Godzilla's left knee.

Godzilla shrieked in agony and dropped into a crouch. While on the outside the knee appeared unharmed, on the inside it now bent sideways, and had dragged who knew how many tendons, ligaments, and bones out of alignment.

The alpha predator continued his turn, his spines beginning to whir and glow. As the younger one panted and heaved from the pain, the elder forced its jaws open and fired his atomic breath down its gullet.

The Permian relic would give credit where it was due. He saw no fear in the eyes of the mutation as he killed it, only defiance and rage. For a moment the glare continued, but then the creature's eyes rolled back into his head and when the elder released him, Godzilla fell forward with a thunderous boom.

The victor of the conflict bellowed his triumph, challenging any other contenders.

He did not expect to be answered so soon, struck in the back by an atomic blast.

Snarling, he turned and saw the other Godzilla. Apparently his ribs had healed. Despite this, the elder seemed to smirk. He had taken the full measure of this Gojiran and found him lacking. He charged.

* * *

The clash between hero and villain was no longer quite so one-sided. The demon caught both of Godzilla's fists and took the opportunity to kick him in the knee, earning a screech of pain. He was beginning to learn the champion's movements. Though faster than any of his previous opponents there was still a pattern to them, making them predictable. As the hero bent over in pain, he went for the kill, biting the back of his foe's neck. He relished the shriek of pain he earned and bit harder, hoping to draw more blood or even crush his enemy's windpipe. The first time the tail struck his head he ignored it, the second time he began to feel dizzy, and finally the third impact caused enough pain to force him to let go.

Nevertheless the champion backed up, now wary of his opponent. The demon would have smiled if it could have. _That_ Godzilla may have forgiven Japan for its sins, but the souls that animated his own body had not, and they would not permit anyone to stand in their way, be it man or kaiju. He charged his atomic breath and fired. The hero naturally countered, but the difference in power between their respective beams was quite dramatic. The ball of energy where their powers contested was quickly pushed toward him and exploded in his face, the burst of power reopening the already regenerated bite wounds and toppling a nearby structure, burying the champion in a shallow grave.

The demon approached the rubble confidently. It had learned all of the old king's tricks and now their little game was over. It was about to kick the pile of concrete and steel when it burst open and the old king abruptly moved to his side and grabbed him. He thrashed his limbs, whipped his tail, and tried to move his head to bite his attacker, but found that his rival had grabbed him from the one angle he could not retaliate against, but to what purpose he did not know. Then his solid-white eyes widened once more as he heard the heroic Godzilla fire his atomic breath and then felt himself rising into the air.

* * *

Godzilla 2000 grappled with Kiryu's nemesis. At the exact same height and weight, this contest came down purely to skill and determination. Pushing his opponent, the millennial Godzilla turned around to strike him with his tail, but when he tried to turn back to face him, he couldn't. The silver-spiked monster had taken hold of his enemy's longer lavender spines and was using his grip to keep Godzilla 2000 immobile. Silver spines flashed blue and the scarred Godzilla raked his opponent's back with his atomic breath. The first Gojiran to emerge in the twenty-first century screeched in pain, but found himself unable to respond. His thrashing tail repeatedly slammed into his captor's side, but did not deter him.

A second blast across his back triggered a memory of when Orga's ship had used cables to bind his spikes. Now, as he had then, he freed himself by charging his own atomic breath.

As purple spikes crackled and turned orange they began to burn like the fire they resembled. Godzilla screeched and released his hold on his foe's back. Godzilla 2000 turned and retaliated, aiming for the scar on his foe's chest.

The scarred Godzilla shrieked in agony, and immediately turned to one side, allowing his better armored shoulder and side to endure the blast as he began to charge his own. As his foe ceased fire, Godzilla face him once more and aimed for his torso, the azure beam striking his enemy's torso and sending him sliding backwards.

They glared at each other and started circling again, both unsure how to go about killing the other, but this tense moment was interrupted when two enormous bodies – a combined fifty-thousand tons – collided with Godzilla 2000, knocking him over and out upon impact.

The scarred Godzilla tried to comprehend what he had just seen. The Godzilla that had repeatedly saved Japan had _flown backwards_ to their ravaged battlefield while carrying his opponent – the one who smelled so strongly of his father – for some unknown reason, and more or less dropped on top of Godzilla 2000's head.

As both got to their feet over the fallen Godzilla 2000 he saw the eyes of the familiar-scented one and understood. Pure white. Blank. He roared in rage. His father's spirit had been laid to rest when that wretched mechanical mockery had been cast into the sea, but now some accursed thing had reanimated his actual remains. It did not matter who or what had done this, the abomination would die so completely and utterly that they would never attempt such a desecration again.

He unleashed his atomic breath on the empty husk of his ancestor, drawing the attention of whatever animated it. The abomination snarled, and from behind it the old king grunted, half challenging, half questioning him.

The scarred Godzilla grunted back. For now he would ally with the champion, but only until the mockery before him was destroyed.


	5. Chapter 5

Godzilla hoped to stop his opponent in his tracks by blasting his feet and legs, but that strategy received no response from the Permian predator apart from a snarl and an increase in speed. Seeing that melee combat was inevitable he marched forward and prepared a trick he hadn't used in years.

As he expected, the elder lunged for his jugular. He could free himself with a nuclear pulse, but instead he struck one of his attacker's gills with a claw and discharged his nuclear power through his hand. Long ago he had done the same to Space Godzilla to little effect, but it seemed to be more effective on his massive doppelgänger. The elder reeled, releasing his hold and yelping in pain. Godzilla did not let up, biting the other set of gills and discharging more energy through his teeth.

The elder screamed and raked its claws across his torso. A painful attack, but far from the worst that he had ever endured. He bit down harder and pumped more energy through his teeth. The elder slashed his chest again, and Godzilla was filled with contempt. A simple bite to an obvious weak point reduced it to such feeble flailing? No wonder its kind had gone extinct.

But the old king was nothing if not cunning. Perhaps if the young mutant had more experience in close combat he would recognize what the elder was doing; not merely scratching, but digging.

The alpha predator dug his claws into the mutated godzillasaurus's chest wounds and pulled with all of his strength, ripping off a large chunk of his armored hide, spilling literal tons of blood on the streets below. The mutation screeched in agony, but retaliated, by pulling its head back, ripping out a chunk of the elder's gills, causing a river of blood to pour from the wound on his neck.

With cries of pain, both Godzillas backed away from each other, glancing at their wounds. The Permian alpha predator had lost a chunk of flesh the size of a train car, and the mutant was missing a piece of his chest large enough to crush a small house. A piece that the elder discarded without a second thought as the spikes at the end of his tail began lighting up.

The mutant Godzilla was still bellowing in rage when he noticed his naturally evolved rival's spines beginning to glow. The elder took a deep breath and let loose a stream of nuclear fire directly at the wound on his foe's torso.

Once more Godzilla shrieked in pain. He knew what the elder was trying to do – cauterize his wounds to keep them from healing. Destoroyah's horn had similar properties. It wouldn't work, not in the long term, but in the short term in was excruciating and meant that more of his energy would be dedicated to clearing away the damaged flesh.

He immediately charged his own atomic breath and returned fire. The elder shifted slightly to keep his own injury out of the line of fire, so he instead focused on trying to burn away his chest armor. After a moment he relented to check the damage, but the glow did not fade. Realizing what this meant he immediately fired again, intercepting his rival's atomic breath.

Even to the unlucky few still trapped in the city, it was a strangely beautiful sight. What looked to most people like a laser fighting fire cast the city and its ruins in a haunting blue light.

But the elder's flames were not as strong as the beam from his young rival. He had been born to modern nuclear waste and weaponry, while the Permian kaiju had evolved for more natural sources of radiation. The beam war could only end one way, and true enough the ball of energy where each projectile met was slowly pushed toward the elder before it exploded.

A lesser kaiju might have been killed by such an explosion. Even most greater kaiju would have at least been toppled by the force of the blast, but such was the old king's strength and willpower that he did not merely remain standing, but came charging out of the cloud it produced at full speed.

Godzilla was caught off guard by his foe's tenacity and was unprepared for the impact. He fell to the ground, collapsing into a skyscraper which then fell on him, burying him.  
The old Godzilla was not fooled. He knew that his foe could survive such a burial and immediately began to stomp on the rubble, hoping to crush the mutant beneath his weight as he would have eventually crushed the female MUTO. Such hopes were dashed when an atomic ray emerged from the rubble, causing him enough pain to make him step back, allowing the younger Godzilla to break free of the debris pile.

The elder whirled, intending to break his ribs again and leave him open for a killing blow, but then something happened that truly caught him by surprise.

The mutation caught his tail and then lifted him skyward and slammed him back to the ground. He scratched at the pavement in an attempt to stay on the ground, but the works of man were not meant to withstand such forces and he was lifted again. He wasn't sure how many times he was pounded against the ground, he was growing dizzy, but finally the young mutant Godzilla turned and threw him to the side, through one skyscraper into another both of which fell on him.

Godzilla unleashed his pent up fury by blasting the makeshift grave with his atomic breath until he heard a scream of pain and saw a large explosion. He roared his victory into the sky–

–Until he was struck in the back of the head by an atomic ray.

He snarled and turned to face his next challenger.

The young mutant, the one that had been imprisoned in Antarctica for decades, had survived the elder's attack. Keizer Ghidorah had also forced him to swallow an atomic ray – his own when he had lost their beam struggle – and it had dazed him, but not killed him. The alpha predator's attack had been no different; he had collapsed and regenerated the damage, then reawakened. Now he was ready to kill his other rival.

Both Godzilla's roared and fired their atomic rays at one another. The beams seemed to be equal, and seconds later exploded in a blinding flash.

* * *

The possessed Godzilla was being pushed to his limits by two opponents. The first, the protector of Japan, had been his rival since this day had begun, and while he was almost certain he had learned all the old king's tricks, after having experienced his ability to fly he was not going to assume any such thing. The other was a recent development. The scarred Godzilla had, for reasons unknown to the souls driving the demon, taken one look at him and then attacked him in rage.

The champion, having found an ally, seemed to have come upon a second wind and begun punching the demon with renewed determination, and was now shuffling his feet like a human boxer, likely in an attempt to avoid any future kicks.

The scarred Godzilla was not content to remain on the sidelines. Such was the rage he felt towards the demon that he occasionally shoved the hero out of the way so that he could have a turn attacking. Every scratch and bite had more than mere animalistic adrenaline behind it. The demon sensed that the beast wanted to destroy him specifically.  
He whirled around slamming his tail into his scarred opponent's face, knocking him to the ground, but before he could take advantage of the moment he was tackled to the ground by the old king. With one hand the hero pressed on his neck, keeping the demon from shifting his weight, and with the other he made a fist and repeatedly brought it down on the possessed kaiju's face. Hammer blow after hammer blow impacted one side of the demon's head, driving the other side into the concrete beneath him.  
But through all of this, the demon was still thinking and planning. He timed the hero's strikes until he caught the offending fist in his jaws and bit down hard, impaling the hand on long teeth.

The hero pried his jaws apart as the villain knew he would, but then predictably backed away. The demon paid no mind to the tooth he lost when the hero ripped his hand out.

He should have.

As the undead Godzilla rose to his feet, the old champion pulled the offending tooth out of his hand, rushed forward, and drove it into one of the demon's eyes.

Screaming in agony the demon backed away from the savage hero and charged his atomic breath. The hero beat him to the punch and blasted his torso, but he held the charge until his foe finished and then let loose with his full power.

From a distance, some saw the mushroom cloud that appeared when he fired it, but up close the demon had to wait until the smoke cleared to see his handiwork.  
There was a trail of blood leading into Tokyo Bay, which was now red with the blood of the old protector. The demon roared in victory and turned to face his next victim.  
He received an atomic ray directly to his bad eye for his trouble.

The scarred Godzilla did not exactly mourn for the hero. They had never met before today, and his protective nature towards human settlements would have disgusted him if he knew of it, but he had wanted to slay the abomination and that was something Godzilla could respect. He would simply make sure to kill it himself.

* * *

A bright flash was what woke Godzilla 2000 up. He was dimly aware that he must have been struck hard, because his last memory made no sense. There was no such thing as a flying Godzilla, so there was no way that one had fallen on his head. He groggily got to his feet. He could smell radiation in the air. No doubt there had been a great many beam wars while he was unconscious. He could see two of the titans battling in the distance, and looked around for challengers closer to his size.

He saw the scarred one fighting the white-eyed one not far from the bay, which was now crimson with blood. He was about to make his way towards them when he felt a rumbling coming from behind him. He turned to look and saw something truly unexpected.

Bursting from the ground with a powerful roar was his identical rival. His lack of a responding roar belied his shock.

The slayer of Megaguirus had not been killed by the explosion above his head, merely hurt and forced underground, just as the destruction of the Dimension Tide's black hole had done. He had simply needed time to regenerate and remaining underground had been the best option.

He erupted from his former grave and charged. Godzilla 2000 turned and lashed out with his tail. He did not expect his speedier double to duck, causing his tail to slice itself open as it whipped across his sword-like spikes.

The first of the millennial Gojirans wailed and looked back at his tail. Though not quite amputated, the combination of the tail's weight, momentum, and the sharpness of the spikes had cut into it deeply and it hung from thin strips of flesh in several places.

His rival challenged him again, and fury eclipsed pain in Godzilla 2000's mind. He rushed forward, heedless of any danger. Godzilla 2000 struck with all the force he could, throwing his entire body into each of his blows, while his rival seemed to concentrate on speedy strikes. He lunged forward, biting his rival's shoulder and tearing off some of the armored scales. His foe retaliated by swiping a claw across the front of his neck, drawing blood.

He groaned. He was not stupid. His foe was just as strong as him and much faster. He had only one real option left.

Godzilla 2000 caught both of his foes claws and forced him into a grapple, but did not push back when his rival began forcing him backwards. Instead, he began to charge is final attack, the same one that had killed Orga. His spines began to glow, and the glow started spreading to the rest of his body. His identical foe seemed baffled by this turn of events, but he began to charge his atomic ray.

It would all come down to this. One last beam struggle. His foe's atomic breath may have destroyed a black hole, but Godzilla 2000 could put every drop of his inner radiation into his atomic ray. This attack would grant him victory or kill him.

Both Godzilla's fired, and moments later were engulfed by a fiery explosion, muffling a pair of pained roars.


	6. Chapter 6

A victorious roar came from within a crater in the ruins of Tokyo. A king was dead, and another alive. The vanquisher of Megaguirus had now also vanquished Godzilla 2000, whose corpse lay motionless and headless.

Even Godzilla's pride could acknowledge that it was almost chance that he was alive and his opponent dead. The scratch to his neck had been Godzilla 2000's undoing, for while his scales and spines had weathered the explosion well, that single, open wound in a critical area had exposed his innards to the destructive forces the two of them had unleashed. The shockwave, and the flames had forced their way into the relatively tiny injury, forcing it open and shearing off the head of the once mighty king.

Still, he would take no chances. He stood over the corpse and absorbed its remaining radiation, giving himself a much needed surge of power and removing any hope that Godzilla 2000 would rise again. He scanned the area and saw two of the leviathans battling in the distance, and a pair of Gojirans closer to his size not quite as far away. He marched forward. One battle was over, it was time to go to war.

* * *

Godzilla struggled against his reanimated "father." Their battle had taken them to the edge of the ruins created by the earlier clash of beams, and they dueled with vast skyscrapers as a backdrop. The abomination smelled of his kin, but was something else entirely, and for that it would die. He forced the pretender back and blasted it with his atomic ray, the ensuing explosions hiding the impostor from view. A moment the pretender's own atomic ray emerged from the smoke, striking Godzilla's scar. He screeched in pain and backed away under the assault. The false Godzilla charged out of the cloud aimed a pair of claw slashes at the weakened flesh, drawing blood. The undead kaiju continued its attack, biting Godzilla's neck and squeezing, intending to crush his windpipe or rip out a major artery, whichever came first.

Godzilla let out a muffled roar of defiance. He charged his atomic ray, but could not fire it with his throat constricted. Worse still, one of his claws was pinned by the proximity of the false king, unable to strike back. But all was not lost; he looked down and saw that his free hand was on the same side as his foe's eye wound. He swung his arm as high as possible and dug his claws into the empty socket.

With a shriek of agony the demon recoiled from him, whirling around and swiping his legs out from beneath him with its tail in its haste to get away. With his throat no longer obstructed, Godzilla fired his breath weapon at the back of his foe's head, making him stagger and ultimately fall forward. The scarred king took the opportunity to get to his feet. Seeing his foe trying to do the same, he fired at its back again, making it stagger forwards.

As the mockery turned to face him, Godzilla eyed it not as an enraged and vengeful son, but as a predator. Unlike all the other Godzillas on the battlefield, its wounds were not healing. They remained open, bleeding. And its hide was covered in burns and cuts, but in some places it appeared thinner than in others.

And at that moment he understood. Whatever had reanimated his father could not even do it properly. The abomination's hide was not strong, merely thicker than normal. It truly was a pale imitation of the real thing. With greater understanding and renewed determination, he challenged the false king again.

* * *

Two enormous mutants now fought in the heart of Tokyo, once a bustling metropolis, now a ghost town filled only with the sound of angry roars and falling buildings. The first Godzilla was the one that had been the Cold War's "third superpower" hunting the nuclear submarines belonging to both the US and USSR. It had been considered such a threat that an entire task force, the G-Force, was created by the United Nations and granted nearly unlimited funding to destroy him.

Every attempt had failed.

The other, leaner Godzilla had been deemed too aggressive, too dangerous, and had been sealed away in Antarctica, buried beneath a glacier, and a giant freezer built around his icy tomb to keep him there. He had only been unleashed when an alien invasion had destroyed much of the world, to destroy the monsters in the alien armies.  
In mere days he had destroyed nearly all the lesser monsters and almost singlehandedly destroyed the invaders.

They were both unstoppable forces, now directed at each other.

They charged one another, the larger with greater mass, the smaller with greater momentum. There was a thunderous boom as they crashed against one another, and for a long moment seemed to be in a deadlock, roaring at one another and grappling, trying to throw each other off balance. Despite this, it was less comparable to sumo wrestling, and more like watching a pair of natural disasters in conflict, like an erupting volcano being struck by a tsunami, or a rockslide being caught in a tornado.  
Sparks flew as their claws raked against each other's hide, attempting to rip apart scales as hard as diamonds.

The leaner mutant bit his bulkier doppelgänger, who snarled in irritation. He was forced once again to use his nuclear pulse, which his opponent once again absorbed. If this continued he would ultimately be drained of power and his foe would be even stronger.

It was time to end this.

Drawing from a deep reservoir of rage and nuclear power, crimson light flashed across Godzilla's body and spines, and he unleashed the red spiral ray on his opponent at point blank.

The rival Godzilla shrieked in pain and collapsed, the scales on his chest sizzling. None of his foes had ever had such power! Even Keizer Ghidorah, mightiest of his foes, had merely been able to daze him before siphoning his power. Now he was faced with an opponent who might truly be able to destroy him.

But the Antarctic prisoner would not go quietly into the night. His attacker was not the only one with a red ray. Rising again, he slammed his tail and then both feet into the ground with enough force to penetrate the rubble and concrete, anchoring himself. Then he began charging his greatest power, his own spines flaring blue and then red.

The red spiral ray met the spiral fire ray.

The heat exceeded that of the sun. Stone turned to lava and the surrounding buildings melted. The few trees that remained instantly burned to ash, and the ash evaporated into vapor.

Both Gojirans burned within the center of the inferno, both pouring all of their power into maintaining their half of the beam struggle… but one was advancing.

Marching through the molten streets, the larger king continued to fire his variant of the spiral ray. What a difference ten-thousand tons made, that he was able to walk and fire, while his lighter foe struggled to hold his position. The smaller king thought his foe was suicidal, with every step he brought himself closer to the inevitable explosion and the withering heat. But the larger mutation had fought many foes while his rival was sealed in ice. Biollante, King Ghidorah, Mothra, Battra, Mechagodzilla, Space Godzilla, and Destoroyah. Almost always he had been the underdog, either fighting a stronger foe or multiple foes at once. Now, in his mind the tables had turned. He was fighting a foe smaller than him, one that had been unleashed on weak alien pets by a vengeful world, and who had no true experience in battle with a stronger opponent.

With every step Godzilla knew that he could trigger the explosion, but he knew that he could take it.

He doubted his opponent could.

So even as the heat made the first drops of flesh fall from his spines he continued his relentless march to destruction. Whatever else happened, one of them would burn.  
Finally, the laws of physics could allow no more and the inevitable explosion occurred.

Sans the Permian alpha predator, every Godzilla was born from atomic weaponry and held some fragment of its power, but this was the first explosion to be truly comparable to a nuclear weapon.

* * *

Those far away from the heart of the city, such as the three smaller Godzillas on the coast, were able to endure the shockwave, but then the flames rushed over them.  
The shockwave cleared the rubble from the eldest Godzilla's tomb, but before he could stand he was swept aside by the fire.

Not even the ocean was spared, the sheer force of the shockwave and heat of the explosion forcing the surface of the ocean down and away from the shoreline. Were any structures still standing, they would have been toppled by the ocean – for lack of a better explanation – springing back with a powerful wave.

By the time the light faded, night had fallen and the mushroom cloud grown into a storm cloud that blotted out the moon, casting the landscape in utter darkness. The only lights were flashes of lightning and the constant glow of the still-molten ground. The clouds, seeded by so much radiation, released a poisonous black rain not seen in Japan since the detonations of Little Boy and Fat Man.

But lightning tends to strike the tallest objects in a region, and there were several areas struck by more bolts than any others…


	7. Chapter 7

In the center of the crater that was once the heart of Tokyo was a lake of molten rock, once the solid concrete and steel of many edifices. Within this "artificial" lava lay an enormous skeleton, its bones charred and burned almost black by the heat of the explosion. Had any humans survived, they might have marveled at or recoiled in horror from the colossal skull illuminated by the glow of the liquid rock. And if any humans had been there, they would have been incinerated by the wave of lava created by the gigantic foot that came down and crushed that skull.

A flash of lightning revealed Godzilla. He had destroyed a mechanical duplicate and a clone from outer space, and now he had struck down an earthborn double. He roared, reveling in his victory, but even he had not escaped unscathed.

Another flash of lightning exposed his spines, partially melted and then healed into strange, irregular shapes, and the burn scars across his body where open wounds had been seared shut by the explosion before they could properly regenerate. All of this would heal in time, but for now his battle scars were a testament to his vanquished foe's might.

A distant roar drew his attention, and closer to the shoreline he could see four of the smaller Gojirans preparing to battle amongst themselves. He strode out of the crater, preparing to crush his diminutive competition…

* * *

Radiation infused lightning struck the spines of one Godzilla, waking him from his explosion induced unconsciousness. He rose to his feet, another flash of lightning briefly illuminating a scarred chest, revealing his identity. He could smell death in the air. A truly mighty foe must have fallen for his lingering energy to have created a storm. He roared a challenge into the night, daring any other survivor of the explosion to attack him.

A small chorus of roars answered him.

Looking towards the first, he saw his jade double, the one with lavender spines. Simply from the speed at which it moved, he could tell it was not Godzilla 2000.

Looking towards the second, he saw his "father." Though the reanimated Godzilla looked considerably worse for wear, it still lived.

The third gave him a start. The old king, the champion, the protector of Japan, was still alive. From the look of him the blast from the demon had almost killed him, covering him in burns. But he had not died. Just as he had after his first battle with Mechagodzilla, he had withdrawn to the ocean to heal. Godzilla had not expected to be thrown onto land by a miniature tsunami, but it had been a blessing in disguise, as the lightning had rejuvenated him.

The scarred king spared a glance into the distance, where he saw one of the leviathans approaching, but he put it out of his mind. He had more immediate concerns, and the giant seemed oblivious to the fact that another one was following him…

* * *

The eldest Godzilla, the Permian apex predator, had not been killed by either the mutant he stalked or the explosion of the one whose bones lay scattered in the lava. He had survived the asteroid that ended his era, and then dug deep beneath the earth where the pressure and heat was enormous to obtain life granting radiation, and when he had emerged in 1954 the Tsar Bomb had not been enough to kill him. It would take far greater powers to send him to the grave.

But the eons had made him cautious. He knew that this mutant, a greater son of lesser sires, could have the power it took, and so he fell back to the oldest of the predators' techniques: stealth.

He timed his steps with those of his prey to prevent it from hearing his footfalls, and with his greater stride length he slowly and steadily caught up to his soon-to-be victim.  
However, luck and chance ruin even the best-laid plans, and a random swish of the mutant's tail struck his leg and alerted it to the predator's presence. The mutation turned its head in surprise, but it was too late. The predator lunged for the back of his prey's head, bit down, and squeezed. With one claw he dug into his prey's shoulder to prevent it from turning around, and with the other he gripped one of its more severely melted spines to further immobilize it.

The mutant struggled in his grasp, but the predator would not be denied. He felt the scales give way under his teeth, then the softer flesh. All that remained was the tough skull. Any moment now, he would crush this pretender's brain in his jaws and the battle would be over.

Godzilla thrashed in his attacker's grip and fired his atomic ray at everything and nothing in desperation, but in spite of everything, he could feel his skull beginning to give way. He let out a final, defiant roar as his skull cracked beneath the pressure betraying no fear, only a terrible rage at being denied his victory.

With a loud snap the skull finally gave way. The mutant's brain was crushed, and when the predator released him, Godzilla fell forward with a loud thud. He was dead before he hit the ground.

The alpha predator let out a victorious roar. It had taken every ounce of his skill as a fighter and a hunter, but he had triumphed over his two only real rivals. He set off for the smaller ones, intent on ending this long war before the night was over.

* * *

One might have expected the four Godzillas to break into two separate duels, but instead, their battle had devolved into free-for-all melee, with each fighting the three others.

The hero punched the one with purple spikes, causing it to stagger sideways into the demon, who retaliated against the perceived aggression with a bite to the back of the neck. In turn, the sole green Godzilla shifted slightly so that its spikes stabbed into the demon's arm, piercing its thick hide and drawing blood. The hero paused to register how easily the purple spikes had cut through the undead kaiju's scales, leaving him open to a tail whip from his scarred opponent, knocking him over.

The champion rolled with the blow and got back to his feet, firing his atomic breath as he did so, aiming for the scar, bringing a cry of pain from his foe. The demon charged his own atomic ray and fired at his emerald-scaled enemy, only for that enemy to leap over the beam. Ceasing his attack due to sheer shock, he looked up just in time to see his foe falling back down, crashing into him and slamming him to the ground. The violet-spiked king lunged and tried to bite through the demon's thick scales, struggling to do so.

The resurrected king shoved off his opponent and rolled away, taking the opportunity to bite the hero's tail, interrupting an attempted attack and leaving him open to be bitten on the arm by the scarred Godzilla.

But the old king whirled around with surprising force, pulling his tail from the reanimated monster's jaws and swinging his scarred rival into his undead father. Leaving them to snap and roar at each other the champion charged the green Godzilla. The one with violet spikes lunged like a cobra, but his elder rival caught him by the sides of the head, turned, and flung him over his shoulder.

He did not expect his rival to exploit his unexpected flight by wrapping his tail around the champion's neck, simultaneously strangling him, using him as an anchor, and pulling him face first onto the ground.

Godzilla got back up and brushed himself off. He prepared to rush into battle again, but halted, feeling a vibration in the ground that did not come from himself or any of his opponents. He looked around for the source and saw the leviathan approaching from behind him.

The Permian predator roared at all four of them, attempting to intimidate them.

In turn he received four defiant roars. It took more than enormity to become King of the Monsters.

The green Godzilla leapt, attempting to attack the eldest's head. He was caught with surprising speed and thrown to the ground. The scarred one charged, but was kicked to the ground with tremendous force. The demon fired its atomic ray, and though this staggered the titan, it retaliated by putting its full weight into a tail whip that launched the abomination far off, toward the colossal corpse.

The eldest king glared at down at the last of his diminutive challengers, the champion, who looked back defiantly.

The hero struck first, blasting the predator in the gills, causing it to yelp and turn away. Then, he slid on his tail, kicking into the back of the leviathan's leg, causing him to topple with a thunderous boom.

The champion knew that that would not keep him down long, and formulated a plan. Though it galled him to retreat from a fight, he needed something more to triumph against so many powerful foes. He fired his atomic breath and began to fly down the coast.

This battle was not over by a long shot.

* * *

Author's Note: This story is back! I was sick for a week, so you get two chapters in one day to celebrate the fact that I'm back to normal. As always thank you for your follows and favorites, and if you want to read additional author commentary you can visit my DeviantArt page (I can't post links, but I'm Gojirahkiin on DeviantArt too).

Also, if you received a whole bunch of updates, I apologize about that. I went through and fixed some spelling and grammatical errors in all the chapters, that's all.


	8. Chapter 8

Godzilla groaned as he rose to his full height. The alpha predator had underestimated the strength of his tiny attacker. He would not do so again. He turned around to face his foe–

–And was utterly baffled by the sight of it flying away.

He was so confused by the sight that he almost didn't feel something coiling around his leg. He looked down to see the small green Godzilla wrapping its tail around his foot and pulling with all of its strength. He felt the tug, but refused to fall. He kicked his leg forward, dragging the smaller kaiju with it until it fell over. He moved forward and raised his foot to crush it, but almost immediately pulled back with a groan of pain.

Purple spines were now stained red with blood where they had impaled the bottom of the giant's foot. They flared orange, burning off the blood and the small king fired its atomic ray at him, a beam that struck the elder with surprising force. He took a step back, and then his own spines began to glow, blue light starting at the tip of his tail and flowing up toward his head until he could retaliated.

Where most Gojirans fired a concentrated laser, the naturally evolved Godzilla's breath was more like fire, and like fire it flowed all around his victim. It screamed in pain as the flames engulfed it, searing its flesh.

The old predator paused to take a breath when he was struck by yet another beam, this one blue and from further away. The glow around his spikes faded and he glared at his new attacker, the scarred king that he had punted away earlier.

He did not know how it was possible, but the Permian king realized that these tiny terrors had greater nuclear power than he did, which meant he had only one advantage.

Albeit, one _big_ advantage.

He charged forward at full speed, apparently startling both his victims with the ground he could cover. The green one leaped again, but this time to get out of the way. The old predator would hunt it down later and continued to barrel down on the scarred one.

A blue blast of nuclear energy slowed him down, but could not stop him, and when he reached his victim he bent down and used an enormous claw to knock it over. He then picked it up by the tail.

Dangling upside-down, the smaller Godzilla thrashed as much as it could, scratching and biting at the enormous elder's armored hide and bombarding it with atomic rays in an effort to make it release him. The elder was not even attacking him, seemingly doing this purely to humiliate him.

The old predator lacked the sadistic streak required to appreciate humiliation. Godzilla was not attacking the prey because he was studying it for where exactly to strike a killing blow. The back was protected by sharped silver spikes, and removing the tail, though potentially crippling, was nonlethal. Biting off the head could work, but would leave him vulnerable to the mutant firing its weapon down his own throat, so it was not an option. That left the prey's torso as his only real target, the scar in particular was likely the most vulnerable.

With that thought, he dropped the prey on its head, stunning it, then kicked it over so that it was on its side and the spikes faced away from him. As he reached down again the semi-conscious prey stirred weakly, calling out defiantly and making slow attempts to keep his claws away.

It was to no avail.

The elder immobilized the creature's arms and then began biting at the scarred chest, ripping and tearing savagely, ripping out scales and scar tissue, and spilling radioactive blood. The small mutant thrashed and shrieked in agony, and fired its atomic ray at his face this time. It struck him between the eyes and dazed him, but he retaliated by tightening his grip on both of his victims' arms and pulling. There was a loud, disgusting popping noise as the arms dislocated, drowned out only by the prey's scream of pain.

The elder continued to maul the small Godzilla's torso, until he could finally see its ribs. Then he charged his own atomic breath and fired into the injury. With a last wail, the mutant expired, its insides roasted by the alpha predator, flames that were not its own emerging from its mouth. The elder stood up from the burning corpse and roared in victory once again.

He scanned the area for more prey. Behind him, the green Godzilla awaited its fate. Somewhere off to his left, the one that reeked of death lay near the corpse of his titanic rival, still trying to recovery from the strike of his tail. And somewhere near the horizon, the small one that had surprising strength was investigating another corpse, perhaps looking for energy to absorb. The predator opted for the one closest to him. He turned and roared at the short green Godzilla, which roared back, seemingly unafraid even after witnessing the brutal death of one so like it.

* * *

The possessed king rose to his feet, struggling to simply draw breath. He was certain that the strike of the titan's mammoth tail had driven one of his ribs into one of his lungs, and now mere movement was a struggle. He used the nearby corpse to steady himself. The souls that drove him were troubled. What good was a broken vessel? Regardless, they were committed to their plan and their vengeance. Tokyo was gone, and soon all of Japan would follow.

He took one painful step after another until he heard a familiar sound. He looked up and saw the champion flying towards him. He charged his atomic ray, inhaling radioactive particles from the atmosphere and prepared to shoot him out of the sky, but with his injury he was not able to turn as quickly and wound up simply raking the landscape behind him (or was it in front of him, given that he was flying backwards?) and the titanic corpse he landed behind.

He snarled, and chose to wait for the old king to come to him.

As predicted, his rival appeared stepping around the dead king's maimed head. He roared a challenge and the champion answered, both with a roar and by brandishing a pair of… swords?

As the defender charged him, the demon got a closer look. The old king's hands were bleeding, and he was holding long snapped off fragments of Godzilla 2000's spikes, dual wielding them like some kind of berserker.

Godzilla slashed the abomination, remembering how easily the other Godzilla's spines had sliced through its thick hide, and true enough the makeshift violet blades were ripping through his foe with ease.

The demon screeched in pain and rage and charged up its atomic ray once more–

–Only to be stabbed in the heart with one spike and in the neck with the other.

Godzilla roared, satisfied that he had already won, but the demon grasped him with its claws and refused to let go.

The souls remembered what had happened the last time their body had been pierced, and now it had happened again, but this time they would take their attacker with them.

The demon attempted to fire his atomic ray and exploded while keeping his rival at point blank.

* * *

Moments later, the dust settled and Godzilla stood up shakily. The explosion had been powerful, no doubt one of the strongest he had ever endured, and strong enough at least to reopen a number of wounds that he'd thought had fully regenerated, but he paid them no mind. He was alive and his foe was dead, it was time to face the leviathan.

But something stirred behind him.

At first he thought it was just rubble sent up by the explosion falling back down, but then it happened again and again, prompting him to look.

What he saw stunned him.

The colossal corpse was moving, its claws scraping against the ground, its tail twitching slightly, and its spines were flashing as they appeared to be absorbing the radiation from his enemy's detonation and drawing down more irradiated lightning from the storm.

But most shocking of all was its head wound.

The bone shards were snapping back into place, and flesh and scales were knitting themselves back together over them.

Godzilla backed away. He feared nothing, but even he found himself disturbed by the sight of another, larger Godzilla coming back to life.

Another minute later the titan's eyes opened and the monster rose again with a powerful roar announcing his return.

The newly resurrected mutant barely even glanced at the smaller Godzilla before catching sight of the Permian predator. Enraged by the sight of his killer, the restored Godzilla roared even louder and marched off, determined to wreak terrible revenge upon him.

* * *

The alpha predator had just endured another blast from his small foe when they both heard the powerful roar. The elder's eyes widened in shock and horror. He had killed the mutant, crushed its skull and brain in his jaws, it could not possibly be alive! Yet there it was, walking towards him as if it considered his death inevitable. The Permian Godzilla roared a challenge, for the first time in eons uncertain if he would be victorious.

The vanquisher of Godzilla 2000 was just beginning to wonder what to do in the face of two such titans, when he was struck in the side by an atomic ray. He turned to see the old champion challenging him.

And so the stage was set for two more duels…

* * *

Author's Note: That was most likely the goriest death of the entire battle. And I have to ask, did anyone see the Heisei Godzilla's resurrection coming? Because I really wanted that to be an unexpected twist.

As always, this chapter will be cross-posted to DeviantArt in a matter of minutes if you prefer things over there, with additional author commentary. I try to keep my notes here short to obey the rules.


	9. Chapter 9

Godzilla charged the old champion only to stop and gawk as his foe began sliding on his tail in a flying kick. The impact knocked the wind out of him and knocked him onto his back, but unlike other Godzillas he could still fight strategically from this position. He swung his prehensile tail and wrapped it around his attacker's leg, pulling it out from under him, buying himself some time to get up.

Not enough time, as the heroic Godzilla sprang to his feet almost immediately and began bombarding his still struggling opponent with atomic blasts, hoping to end the battle quickly. Violet spikes crackled and turned orange and he spun around, intercepting the blue beam aimed at him.

There was no contest. The orange ray quickly overpowered the blue beam, exploding in the defender's face and bringing a cry of pain as he collapsed. The green Godzilla saw an opportunity and leaped high into the air. When the champion stood up, he saw nothing in front of him, but, on a hunch, looked up just in time to see his foe land on him.

He screamed in pain and his green-scaled foe roared as if to taunt him before attempting to bite his head. The old hero was able to shift his head and neck enough that his foe bit down on the ground, then he freed one of his arms and punched his enemy's neck, bringing a strangled groan and making it get off of him.

Godzilla was quickly back on his feet and grabbed his rival by the tail. The tail quickly wrapped around his arms, but the old king didn't care. That would actually help with what he planned to do.

He lifted his foe high into the air and then slammed him back down. The green scaled Godzilla was stunned by the impact. Even when the alpha predator had thrown him down, he had merely allowed gravity to do his dirty work. The champion was not content with that, using all of his strength to drive him into the ground.

He did this again and again without mercy, monitoring his foe's state of mind by gauging the grip of his enemy's tail. With each blow the grip seemed to tighten, until at last, after dozens of impacts, it began to loosen with each blow, until the tail went limp.

Exhausted by the effort, Godzilla gratefully dropped his green rival and moved on to the next phase of his attack.

Approaching his fallen foe's head, Godzilla turned and began slamming his tail against it over and over, intent on breaking his enemy's skull.

But the one with the razor like spines refused to die. Suddenly its head snapped up and it bit down on the offending tail. Godzilla screeched in shock that his opponent was back up so soon and attempted to pull his tail away. His foe pulled back, gripping the ground with his claws to avoid being dragged forward by his attacker, until the tip of the tail gave way.

The green Godzilla spat out the bit of tail as he got up and roared another challenge at the gray champion. The other Godzilla spent a moment inspecting his tail before renewing his own challenge, and the two foes rushed at each other once more.

They exchanged brutal punches and claw slashes, the former knocking out teeth and the latter drawing blood. The green Godzilla lunged at the gray, biting down on his arm.

This was a mistake on his part, as this forced him to hunch forward, and his own arms were not long enough to continue attacking, whereas his opponent was able to repeatedly pound the side of his head with his free hand.

Reluctantly, he released his hold, unable to withstand so many powerful blows to his head. He shook himself like a dog to clear his vision of spots before rushing back into combat.

* * *

Meanwhile the titans, the Permian apex predator and the resurrected mutation, were battling ferociously.

The elder bit down on the mutant's throat, intent on tearing it out, but a nuclear pulse pushed him back and charred his armored hide. The mutation retaliated by channeling energy through its claws and ripping at various cuts and burns that were not fully healed. The elder changed strategies, attempting to once again dig through his enemy's chest to tear off its armor, but this time the mutant Godzilla knew what was happened and unleashed an atomic blast at the predator's already injured gills.

As the predator moaned in pain the mutant crashed into him with all its strength, knocking him over despite his greater weight. Deciding that turnabout was fair play, the mutation began stomping on the elder Godzilla, pressing down with all sixty-thousand tons of his weight.

But the alpha predator had not survived for so long by being easily slain. It charged its own atomic breath and fired at his foe's face, burning its eyes and forcing it to back away. He rose to his feet as his foe staggered backward and prepared another of his devastating tail whips.

The mutant recovered from the burning of his face just in time to see it coming, and spun around quickly.

Both tails lashed out at full force, and both struck each other and their rivals' hip area. The predator barely flinched, but while the mutant cried out in pain, it had prevented disaster. Because of its secondary brain's location, its hip bones were extraordinarily strong, and so had not broken beneath the impact as its ribs would have.

Turning quickly, the younger Godzilla fired its atomic breath at the elder's midsection, intent on burning away its armor. The elder howled in pain but marched forward, refusing to fall or yield.

Godzilla ceased fire, but only to prepare a stronger attack. His spines flashed with azure and then crimson light as he charged the spiral ray once more. The elder did not know what the color red could mean, but knew that he did not want to find out, and he reached his foe in time to grip his jaws and seal them shut.

It was a valiant, but futile effort.

A powerful red nuclear pulse threw the eldest king through the air, almost causing him to fall on the two smaller Godzillas who scattered to avoid being crushed.

The elder groaned from the pain. The nuclear pulse had compromised much of his armor and seared his hide, but he stood. He knew now that he was about to die, but he refused to do so lying on the ground. He would fight for every moment and every breath until the very end.

The mutation snorted, as if to say that the end was not far away.

One last time, the elder powered up its atomic ray. The mutation waited, as if it wanted to prove that such a thing would not matter in the end. Both fired their respective beams and the red spiral ray steadily pushed to blue flames back, further and further, until the inevitable.

The beam was forced all the way back to his mouth and the elder's head exploded in a shower of fire and gore.

Not content with victory, the mutation continued to fire the spiral ray across the newly fallen corpse, setting it ablaze with one blast and obliterating it with the next.

He roared victoriously into the dark sky… and was then struck by two atomic blasts, one blue, and one orange.

The gray champion and the green Godzilla looked at one another. They were both smart enough to know that on their own they could not defeat the one that had come back from death, but together they could bring it down.

They both bellowed at the giant, who growled contemptuously before roaring back, and the two smaller Godzillas rushed their next opponent.

* * *

Author's Note: I also made some minor edits to chapter eight, mostly just paragraph spacing. Stay tuned readers, the conclusion should be up in a matter of minutes if you've finished reading this chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

The giant Godzilla had scarcely taken one step when he received two large shocks.

The first was when the green Godzilla leaped high into the air and gripped the right side of his head with claws and teeth alike, while using the claws on its feet to dig into his shoulder for greater stability.

But even while thrashing and trying to remove the first attacker he saw the second slide on its tail, crashing feet first into his kneecap, forcibly bending it backwards and causing him to drop to the ground, even as the champion ran away to clear the area for his fall.

The impact dislodged the green Godzilla, but that allowed the defender room to slide once more, this time aiming at the giant's head.

The collision dazed him, but did not knock him out, and so he retaliated, his enormous jaws engulfing most of the old champion's arm and body, but he was forced to let go as he felt a tail wrapping around his neck, strangling him, and had no choice but to use a nuclear pulse to free himself.

The pulse blasted both foes away, but he realized that the small champion could simply slide once again and close the distance, so he fired his atomic ray at the smallest Godzilla. His beam was intercepted halfway to its target by the target's own atomic breath, but the beam was both smaller and weaker, and stood no real chance of opposing him for long. The explosion occurred much closer, though not at point blank, and knocked the small king to the ground.

Still unable to stand, the gigantic Godzilla shifted to face his other opponent, only to receive a face full of violently explosive orange radiation for his trouble. Momentarily blinded by the bright light, he fired his own beam at everything it could reach in the hope of striking his enemy. Opening his eyes once the pain in them ceased, he saw that his purple-spiked foe had closed the distance and forced his head away before he could fire again. The green Godzilla continued his attack by biting the titan's neck, making sparks fly as his teeth scraped against the scales. Though only able to encompass half of it with his jaws, it would not matter if he could just sever a major vein or artery, but the colossal kaiju's hide refused to yield.

Godzilla lashed out with his claws, attempting to pull the smaller kaiju away before it could do any real damage. The first few attempts caused him to cut his fingers on his attacker's spines, but after a moment his claws found his foe's tail and pulled.

Dragged away from his tremendous rival's most vulnerable point, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at the giant's neck, bringing a cry of pain from the leviathan, but he had been dragged just far enough that the larger Godzilla could now look down and return fire.

To say that the blue beam did no damage to the smaller Godzilla would be untrue, but the damage was negligible and would easily heal. He needed a new plan, and a second blast of radioactive orange plasma gave him an idea.

Pushing himself into a kneeling position he turned and dug his claws into both of his little green enemy's shoulders. The smaller Godzilla roared and began a sustained blast of its thermonuclear breath in an attempt to force him to let go, but the giant continued to… do nothing. It almost seemed to be concentrating, but on what?

Then he felt it, just as he had when Megaguirus had impaled him on her stinger – the slow steady drain of his nuclear power. True enough, his atomic ray ceased, and when he attempted to fire it again he achieved nothing more than a few radioactive sparks.

At the same time, the giant's spines were crackling as they drained the living nuclear reactor of its energy, and that power accelerated his healing, repairing the damage to his knee and allowing him to rise to his full height, still carrying the smaller Gojiran, and still draining it.

The green Godzilla's thrashing grew steadily weaker until finally, the flood of power became a trickle and the larger king stopped trying. He growled at his diminutive challenger, who, despite being drained of energy and too weak even to struggle in his grip, gave a last defiant roar.

The giant's spines flashed red and a point blank spiral ray obliterated the small kaiju.

Godzilla roared victoriously. There was only one challenger left to deal with.

A sudden impact against the back of his leg knocked him face first to the ground, and with all but one opponent dead, Godzilla did not even need to look to see what had happened. That sliding kick gave the little king deceptive power.

The old champion refused to give up. He ran to the front of his foe and began rapidly stomping on his head and pounding the giant's neck with his tail in an attempt to keep him from rising again. When his rise became inevitable the hero switched tactics, rapidly punching and headbutting the enormous mutant with all of his speed and strength.

The giant lashed out with a claw, gripping the smaller kaiju by the neck. His spines began flashing, heralding sudden death, but the champion was not out of tricks yet.

Godzilla blasted the giant's chest with a sustained atomic ray, and while it was by no means enough to kill him, the force it possessed allowed him to break free of the giant's grip and fly backwards, avoiding the thermonuclear blast by mere meters, until he ceased fire and landed some distance away.

The colossal Godzilla was confused by what he had just seen, but unimpressed. All it had done was delay the inevitable.

They glared at each other from across the wasteland that was once Tokyo and both roared, one in rage, the other in defiance, but both equally loud.

Godzilla fired his atomic ray and the giant's spines flashed. The giant's beam intercepted the champion's just before it could strike his neck, and after a few seconds the energy exploded.

Again the hero fired, and again the giant's beam blocked it, always closer to the giant due to its ray's longer charge time, but why did he persist? Why did the champion waste his time with such a pointless exercise when he knew that his foe had the stronger breath weapon?

The hero's reasoning was rather morbid. Though his final foe was the same height as King Ghidorah, he was much heavier. There was no way he could throw him. At his full height, he could not reach his enemy's head for any potentially lethal strikes. That left only his atomic breath as a means of attack. It would kill this last enemy, or nothing would.

But after several more such beam struggles something happened that neither the champion nor the giant anticipated. The release of so much radiation in such a small area caused the storm to intensify in that area, just above the giant. As a result, irradiated lightning bolts began to strike him, empowering him further and replenishing the energy he had been losing in the long battle.

Godzilla's spikes flashed blue and then a bloody crimson.

He unleashed the red spiral ray on his small challenger, bringing a scream of pain and a large explosion.

The former godzillasaurus waited, and sure enough from behind the smoke and flames came the champion.

Once a majestic sight, the champion's age seemed on display in its slow movements and the toll of battle was clearly visible. It bled profusely, old wounds reopened and new ones refusing to regenerate.

The giant challenged the fearless creature and waited, almost as if out of respect.

With one final roar, the old defender reared back and unleashed the longest atomic ray it ever had, striking the giant's torso and burning against it, releasing sparks and explosions.

After three minutes the beam stopped, and the old king appeared spent. He glared into the smoke cloud, knowing his foe was alive and well.

Godzilla bellowed and fired the red spiral ray. Again there was an explosion and a shriek of agony, but when the smoke cleared, nothing remained but ash.

Godzilla looked around, scanning the charred and ruined landscape for any other challengers. Seeing none as the sun rose in the sky he let loose a mighty roar of victory, greeting the new dawn as the one and only King of the Monsters.

 **The End**

* * *

Author's Note: Yes, the Heisei Godzilla wins. Believe me, I personally would have preferred to give the win to almost any other Godzilla there was, but in the end the Heisei era's Godzilla had the most power, durability, and the deepest bag of tricks.

The nuclear pulse nullify's nearly all attempts at strangulation, or any attack involving crushing his neck. The atomic ray speaks for itself and the spiral ray speaks even louder. Finally, he had the one trick no other Godzilla did – coming back to life with enough radiation.

In _Godzilla 1984_ we saw his ability to drain the energy from nuclear reactors, and while we never saw him use this on another kaiju, there is no particular reason that he couldn't, meaning that for him every other Godzilla was potentially just a walking power-up.

The only thing that ever put him down was Super Mechagodzilla, by destroying his secondary brain. Immediately afterwards, Fire Rodan sacrificed himself and created an intense radiation storm that infused Godzilla with more power. The surge of radiation supercharged his regeneration, bringing him back to life and healing his mortal wounds. With so many Godzilla's fighting each other, there was always going to be enough radiation to bring him back at some point.

If you've skipped all the author's notes so far (or just chapter one's), I'm about to tell you why all the other Godzillas out there weren't included.

 **Number 1** : fan created Godzillas don't count. I only went for canon Godzillas for this project.

 **Number 2** : The original Godzilla never fought anything, and we haven't seen Shin Godzilla/Godzilla 2016 in action yet. Only Godzillas that fought other kaiju were eligible for this little project of mine.

 **Number 3** : I excluded Godzillas that I do not know of first hand, don't know about, or just couldn't figure out how to differentiate from others. For those who want to know what this means, I excluded the Godzilla from _Super Godzilla_ , the manga version of the Heisei Godzilla, the Hanna Barbera cartoon Godzilla, the Marvel Comics version of Godzilla, the Dark Horse Comics version of Godzilla, the Half-Century War version of Godzilla, and the Rulers of Earth version of Godzilla. That's seven additional Godzillas by my count, and if there are any that aren't listed here, I haven't even heard of them.

Finally, I hope you enjoyed this little project of mine, and want to thank the people who favorited, followed, reviewed, and of course read my story. If you want to know more about me or get a peek at what other stories I might write, click my name and browse my profile, or visit my page of DeviantArt.


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